The Danish Healthcare Sector Overview of the Purchasing Structure

DENMARK

The Danish Healthcare sector Overview of the purchasing structure

In 2006, the Danish Government adopted a reform on local and regional government. The reform shaped a new territorial structure for the Danish healthcare sectors, which meant that 14 counties were abolished, and five regions were established. The five regions’ main area of responsibility is the administration and development of each region’s public hospitals and institutions within the social care area.

Each Region has a procurement centre responsible for the procurement of product and services for each Region’s hospitals. Rather than each hospital makes tenders, the Regions increasingly try to achieve economies of scale by buying products for all the hospitals in the Region at one time with a discount. This has lead to a centralisation of the buying decisions in all five regions, and more and more of the buying decisions are being coordinated on a regional level. Today, all five regions place their tenders on the following webpage: www.regionsudbud.dk. Potential suppliers to the healthcare sector can subscribe to specific product and service categories in order for suppliers to be notified when new tenders in the chosen categories appear. This includes all tenders in excess of DKK 500,000. Tenders for the Danish healthcare sector are subject to the EU’s rules on public tenders.

Specifically, the procurement centres in each region consist of a number of consultants with specialities within different areas of the healthcare sector. The procurement centres may create tenders based on new product developments in the market or specific product needs. Also, the procurement centres are guided by various steering committees (brugergrupper in Danish). These steering committees consist mostly of doctors and nurses that work in the specific areas where the products are needed. The steering committees therefore set the specific product demands and requirements in a given tender.

In addition, the five regions try to coordinate their procurement needs in order to secure better deals for the Danish healthcare sector as a whole. All Regions may act as one and place a single large coordinated tender for the entire Danish healthcare sector, thereby securing better deals with suppliers.

The regions have been able to create their own procurement policies that describe the attitudes to and wishes for procurement procedures. Overall, each region aims at presenting itself as one coherent, professional client to the healthcare sector’s suppliers. The regions purchase products and services that reflect a sincere need, high quality and security level to the satisfaction of both patients and hospital staff. Quality standards are set by hospital staffs’ main users and scientific experts and budget holders.

In order to meet the right needs and right quality of products and services to the healthcare sector, the quality levels are defined in consideration of some overall aspects. These aspects include a predetermined treatment and service level for patients; patient and staff security, the region’s/hospitals’ economies. The environmental aspects of products or services for the healthcare sector are directed by the EU rules on tenders.

The regions are obliged to, on a continuous basis; optimise its contracts with suppliers and make sure supplier enquiries are streamlined. In order to maintain a certain level of competition, the regions regularly seek alternative supplier solutions to their product/service needs. For EU tenders, the regions are required to collect at least five offers to strengthen the competitiveness among potential suppliers.

The public healthcare treats more than 95 percent of all patients in Denmark, leaving only a fraction of patients to the private healthcare sector. Exceptions exists within specialised areas like orthopaedic treatment, knee and hip operations as well as certain cosmetic operations where private hospitals may undertake as many as 25 percent of all operations. However, the private sector may have reached a maturity stage. This includes both private hospitals and smaller private clinics. Given the size of the public healthcare sector in comparison to the private sector, the five Danish Regions are by far the largest buyer of medical devices and related equipment in Denmark.

Christina Bergstrand Life Science Healthcare| UK Trade & Investment British Embassy Stockholm | Skarpögatan 6-8, 115 93 Stockholm Sweden Email:[email protected] | Telephone: +46 (0) 8671 3065 FTN 83123065 | http://www.ukinsweden.fco.gov.uk |